The vast majority of Ministers responsible for Internal Market issues at the Competitiveness Council on Wednesday 29 September supported the elements of the Commission’s new Communication on ‘Better Regulation’, presented earlier this year, including the ‘One in, one out’ principle. However, several delegations called for an accounting and mechanical approach to the concept.
During his speech, Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič recalled the main lines of the communication, including the improvement and simplification of consultation procedures and the strengthening of impact assessments. Here, the Vice-President considered that when a Member State submits an amendment with a particularly important impact, it should suggest an impact assessment to accompany its proposal. He also stressed the novelty of the ‘One in, one out’ principle, which is currently in its pilot phase and should become fully operational next year (see EUROPE 12709/16).
The reception was positive and the ministers all agreed with the objective of simplifying European regulations and reducing bureaucracy. Generally speaking, they all agreed on the need to prioritise the quality of European legislative acts over quantity, by systematising the ‘SME’ test (to model the impact of a legislative act on SMEs) and the implementation of the ‘do no significant harm’ principle, i.e. the fact of not impacting economic operators too heavily. Portugal, Germany and Poland were particularly insistent on the issue of SMEs.
Impact assessments were present in almost all interventions, with Ministers welcoming the Commission’s proposals and recognising the co-responsibility of Member States for the impact of an amendment. Latvia indicated in this context that Parliament’s amendments - at least those with a strong impact on economic operators - should also be subject to similar analyses. Germany, however, has complained to the European Commission about the low number of impact assessments accompanying legislative texts: 25% according to German figures, which were disputed by Mr Šefčovič.
“One out, 27 in”
The ‘One in, one out’ principle was generally well received by the Member States, especially Slovakia, with the Minister describing himself as the “ president of the fan club” for this principle. Germany also strongly supported this approach.
However, several countries have made it clear that this principle should not be applied at the expense of environmental and consumer protection. The most critical were Belgium and Luxembourg, which warned against any “mechanical” system, which would be detrimental to the objectives pursued by a legislative act.
Luxembourg indicated that the 2016 Communication on Better Regulation (see EUROPE 11455/29) would be more than sufficient, if properly implemented. For this country, the European Commission must fully play its role as guardian of the treaties and must “sound the alarm” whenever a text is distorted or barriers to the internal market are introduced. For the Luxembourg minister, there is a risk that a purely accounting-based ‘one in, one out’ approach will ultimately result in ‘one out, 27 in’, i.e. national over-regulation due to a lack of regulatory clarity at European level.
Deepening the single market in services was cited by many Member States, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Poland. They believe that there are still too many unjustified barriers in this area. The Netherlands, Ireland and Poland explicitly mentioned the role of the SMET working group, responsible for the enforcement of Single Market rules, in breaking down these barriers. For the Netherlands, in the second half of 2022, the future Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU should include a debate on this working group on the basis of the next progress report.
Progress report on the SMET working group
On the same day, the European Commission published the first activity report of the SMET working group with very positive conclusions, especially during the pandemic, to lift movement restrictions introduced by Member States (see EUROPE 12718/32).
SMET is currently working on the recognition of qualifications. Prior checking requirements have been removed for at least 155 jobs since then. It also works in the agri-food sector, non-harmonised construction products and digital freight information. During 2022, SMET will try to define a series of obstacles to be removed.
French-Dutch report
The report mentions a Franco-Dutch proposal to improve the single market in services. The proposed approach consists of three steps: - the identification of services that are particularly strategic for a given ecosystem; - identifying barriers to the provision of these services; - the development of concrete and pragmatic actions to remove these barriers.
France and the Netherlands are currently conducting a project focused on the ‘Mobility’ ecosystem and studying the type of barriers faced by cross-border electric car entrepreneurs.
To consult the report: https://bit.ly/2Y4Opat (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)